Big year for recycling in Aberdeen as £30 million rebuild of new recycling facility due for completion

SUEZ recycling and recovery UK manage the waste and recycling contract on behalf of Aberdeen City Council, and the rebuild is in line with Aberdeen City Council’s ambitions to maximise the value from waste by recycling at end of life and recovering materials.

Aberdeen City Council co-leader Councillor Ian Yuill said: “Having a local recycling facility back in place will be a vital step towards a full service solution for improving the quality and quantity of the recyclables we send for reprocessing. Having our own facility for managing our recycling helps us provide the best possible recycling collection service for our citizens.”

Aberdeen City Council’s Net Zero, Environment, and Transport committee Vice-Convenor Councillor Miranda Radley added: “The progress on the rebuild at Altens is pleasing to see. With a recycling facility in place, it will help us to provide the best possible recycling collection service for our citizens.”

When complete, the material recovery facility (MRF) will have the capacity to process around 60,000 tonnes of recycling every year, including glass, cardboard, newspaper, plastics and metals, collected from households across Aberdeen and Scotland. To ensure that this process is done efficiently and effectively, specialist contractors Sutco have been appointed to install the machinery that will separate out these waste streams, ensuring that the value of each material is maximised through mechanical and optical sorting.

Birgit Balkenhoff, project manager from Sutco said: "Together with SUEZ and Aberdeen City Council, we are pleased to contribute to the advancement of Aberdeen's recycling infrastructure towards the Zero Waste Strategy. This new facility, in possibly the nicest MRF location in Europe, includes several upgrades implementing the latest technology and will substantially aid Aberdeen City Council in recovering recyclable material from waste. We are going to take out anything that can be recycled and turn it into quality products. This project marks a significant step forward in sustainable waste management, and we are proud to be part of it."

The MRF is expected to be fully complete in the summer, ready for an extensive testing and commissioning phase before becoming fully operational. 

Alongside the MRF rebuild, the site will also be home to offices, a waste transfer station, and a visitor centre. The waste transfer station allows for council vehicles to tip off their household residual waste before it is bulked up for processing elsewhere.

Colin Forshaw, Production Operations Manager for SUEZ, said: “It is fantastic to see Sutco out on site, installing the machinery that will enable us to start separating out the recyclable materials from households here in Aberdeen once again. It’s a busy year for our team in Aberdeen, with lots of positives in relation to waste and recycling and we’re looking forward to being able to host community groups here in the new onsite visitor education centre to tell them more.”

The offices and waste transfer station are expected to be complete and in use by spring 2025, with plans being developed for the visitor centre to open alongside the full facility later in the year.

The visitor centre will be an engaging space for groups and schools to visit to learn more about the way that their waste is managed, and how we can all work to reduce our consumption and waste, benefitting the economy and the environment through more reuse and repair – something that SUEZ actively champions